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To: Dave346

If Iran has a working reactor, they have plutonium. The article says that they doubt that Iran has the technical ability to extract the plutonium from the rods, which is actually not true. While the separation has to be done robotically, it is a simple chemical process. Separating the U235 isotope from U238 to make a uranium bomb is actually much more difficult.

And, 24 Nagasaki-type bombs is not what the Iranians want. I’m sure they’d rather just use the plutonium as an initiator for a lithium-deuteride reaction. More bang for the buck.


9 posted on 12/15/2012 10:03:49 AM PST by henkster ("The people who count the votes decide everything." -Joseph Stalin)
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To: henkster
You're right about procurement of the respective metals, but Plutonium is so hot that Plutonium weapons are a lot harder to design, and extensive testing is needed to perfect the conventional charge configuration so the fissile material doesn't just blow itself out; this can't really happen with even very simple Uranium bombs.

We know the North Koreans had several ~1 K-ton (or smaller) detonations trying to perfect the technique. There is as yet no evidence in the public domain of such tests by Iran. Even if US intelligence tried to suppress them, the Israelis surely would not.

Boosted and multi-stage thermonuclear devices are even more difficult. It's not clear that India and Pakistan even have these devices -- though they brag that they do. I seriously doubt the Iranians are at this level of sophistication. It's bad enough that they're on the brink of having 1945-level technology weapons.

22 posted on 12/15/2012 12:51:15 PM PST by FredZarguna (One kilogram of anti-matter is EIGHT megatons, BYOTCHES.)
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